Welcome! Howdy! Bonjour! Gutentag! Hola!

[krolmeister]

Welcome to the Adventure Europe chat with Her Interactive, makers of the Nancy Drew mystery game series. I am the Executive Producer for the company and have overseen design and production of the series since we started it in 1997. We have just released in the US The Creature of Kapu Cave featuring the Hardy Boys and earlier this year, we released Danger by Design.

Our games are availabe in Russian and French. Plans are way to localize in German.

Right now, we are in production for our 16th title, The White Wolf of Icicle Creek and designing our 17th title.

[axelkothe]

Plans are way to localize in German.

When will the german versions of the games be released?
which ones will be translated? all? or only selected ones?
will they be sold individually, or as compilations?
whos the publisher ?

[krolmeister]

We are in discussions with a German publisher who's name I don't have. They have yet to determine details or dates of localized products. German publishers seem to have mixed feelings about the games since the Nancy Drew brand isn't well known there and the market is not seen to be similar to the American market.

[axelkothe]

I see the problem, since I only know about ND from your games - I never heard about ND anywhere else.

[krolmeister]

Right - so the key then is to promote the games as adventure games w/o the benefit of the brand name. So far, it's worked well in France and Russia since neither of those localities are familiar with Nancy Drew. Or at least, not to the extent that she's known here in the US.

Even so, we were surprised by the number of US players who weren't familiar with the brand either, but have enjoyed the series nonetheless.

[Noone]

The last officially released game in Russia was "Train to Blue Moon Canyon". The newer two games are still not announced in localization. Do you have any info if they will be translated to Russian?

[krolmeister]

Howdy Alex,

We're doing a lot of localization in Russian. I would prefer to have them make any kind of announcements, so - all's I can say is that we're very busy with our Russian partners these days.

[Noone]

Thats good to hear as our publishers were too silent for quite a time.

[krolmeister]

It's been a lot of fun working with our Russian partners - and it helps to have a Russian on our staff! They're very quick, smart and adept! We'll need to send Nancy over there and match wits with her doppelganger. Is there a Russian counterpart to nancy drew?

[Noone]

In literature? Nobody comes to mind, sorry.

The only thing I can imagine is "Timur and his comando" by Gaidar writer - but they are some analogue of scouts helping people duirng World War 2...

Well, I'm not young to know if there are good modern Russian writers and characters... It needs more research :-)

[HIddenSanctum]

With Kapu Cave, there was a lot of time spent on chores so to speak - fishing, necklace making - with very little sleuthing. Is this a trend that will continue or can we expect the next Nancy Drew game to be more like Blackmoor Manor (which many consider the best of the series)?

[krolmeister]

Welcome Hidden Sanctum,

We always try to change up the stories and games a bit. For ICE (White Wolf of Icicle Creek), we really concentrated on creating a cohesive story with clues and plotlines that you could investigate and follow up on. We also emphasized the location and historical aspect of it all.

So, there will definitely be similarities with CUR (Curse of Blackmoor Manor), in that there'll be more investigation involving the storyline, but there will also be some chores. However, the chores are there to allow the player access to information, rather than just being there to earn resources such as Big Island Bucks.

And for ND17, the mood will definitely be very similar to CUR, but with a fun twist.

[one-cool]

hm, this is one iof the few games or companys I don't know and never heard about.

And I never saw one of those games published or reviewed here in Germany... Can you maybe name the games published here? It's nearly the same questio like axelkothe. But instead of him, I never heard of it before. :/

[axelkothe]

hm, this is one iof the few games or companys I don't know and never heard about.

And I never saw one of those games published or reviewed here in Germany... Can you maybe name the games published here? It's nearly the same questio like axelkothe. But instead of him, I never heard of it before. :/

Thats easy, there are no games published here yet, afaik.

They make the Nancy Drew - Games, first person adventures based on popular books of the same name. (hope i got it right)

[HIddenSanctum]

Excellent news! I've played all of your games, except for Danger By Design. Mainly because I have to watch my spending at the moment and having heard it was not as good as Kapu and that I really wasn't crazy Kapu. My favs thus far are Last Train, Blackmoor, and Shadow Ranch (yes, despite the chores! There was plenty of sleuthing to do in there). Kapu in my opinion went way overboard on chores so I'm pretty happy that the next titles will be moving away from that.

Next question: The Hardy Boys.

I realize you are "Her"Interactive, but is there a good chance we'll start to see the Hardy Boys in their own games?

[krolmeister]

Correct!

We've created an adventure series from a book series featuring a teenage detective named Nancy Drew. We've been creating these titles for almost 10 years and have 15 titles out on the market:

Secrets Can Kill
Stay Tuned for Danger
Message in a Haunted Mansion
Treasure in the Royal Tower
The Final Scene
The Secret of the Scarlet Hand
Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake
The Haunted Carousel
Danger on Deception Island
Secret of Shadow Ranch
Curse of Blackmoor Manor
Secret of the Old Clock
Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon
Danger by Design
Creature of Kapu Cave
White Wolf of Icicle Creek

[one-cool]

Thats easy, there are no games published here yet, afaik.

They make the Nancy Drew - Games, first person adventures based on popular books of the same name. (hope i got it right)

So no shame on me for not knowing the series *phew*

@krool: thx I'll search for this games soon

[krolmeister]

Excellent news! I've played all of your games, except for Danger By Design.

Awesome - thank you for your support! Danger by Design is not as chore intensive. We really tried to emphasize the feeling of being in Paris.

Next question: The Hardy Boys.

I realize you are "Her"Interactive, but is there a good chance we'll start to see the Hardy Boys in their own games?

We'd love to take the Hardy Boys and give them their own mysteries. I think if we did do a HB game, it would be much different than the ND series.

[HIddenSanctum]

Hmmm, maybe I'll have to move Danger by Design up a few notches on my wish list.

Next Question: Where do your games from from? Are they all developed exclusively in-house, or do you sometimes receive story ideas submitted from outside sources?

BTW, it's a shame that most of your fans are in the US and either at work or in school at the moment. I'm sure they would LOVE this opportunity to chat with you! On second thought, it's probably better because you wouldn't be able to keep up!

[krolmeister]

Hmmm, maybe I'll have to move Danger by Design up a few notches on my wish list.

Next Question: Where do your games from from? Are they all developed exclusively in-house, or do you sometimes receive story ideas submitted from outside sources?

BTW, it's a shame that most of your fans are in the US and either at work or in school at the moment. I'm sure they would LOVE this opportunity to chat with you! On second thought, it's probably better because you wouldn't be able to keep up!

Danger by Design was definitely experimental - especially with the story. I wanted to create this feeling that there was a whole universe happening outside of the bounds of your experience.

We develop everything in house, except for music and character animation. We do not accept story submissions unfortunately. We've got a kajillion Nancy Drew books to work with and read through and read through and read through... :P

Yeah - we're thinking of doing a similar chat on our Msg Boards. I think our French partners want me to chat on their msg board - so, if you 'parle francais' - you'll have a 2nd chance!